La profezia dell’armadillo – Zerocalcare

I liked the last Zerocalcare book I read. I decided to go for another one. The nice person at the bookstore claimed this was the best one, and it is also the first published volume. i think Zerocalcare used to publish his comics independently online. If there was a narrative order there, I am unfamiliar with it.

Zerocalcare is the pseudonym for an Italian comics artist, know predominately for a series of the same name. This is the third volume I have read, and I think if I had to describe it, even in terms as simple as ‘fiction’ vs ‘non-fiction’. Part of this just may be my being lazy or busy and not all that motivated to do some research on it.

This collection consists of one overarching story interspersed with short vignettes about Zero’s personal life. Again, if this is Zero’s real life or the fictional character’s I haven’t the faintest idea. The larger story here is similar to the netflix show in terms of plot, but I did feel that it had some thematic differences, enough so to make the two distinct.

Despite this being an earlier collection, the art style here is more or less the same as what I found in the others. I think Zero honed in on what worked for him early, and decided to run with it. It is rather cartoony, but the accuracy hits. Again, I know the area that is depicted here rather intemately, and even the few shots of downtown Rome are rendered very accurately. As pictures speak 1000 words, here is a sample at random.

If you like it, you may enjoy the series, otherwise, you likely won’t.

I am starting to realize why this resonates with me as it does, aside from the pure nostalgia bait of seeing familiar territory. Zerocalcare is more or less my age, and I can take a guess that me and him likely share many experiences. Obviously, being of the same generation we share many of the same pop culture references that this work delights in nominating. But being of the same generation, there seem to be a similar attitude towards many aspects of life. I guess you could call it a certain Italian attitude towards things. The characters here remind me of many people I know. But that is a bit of a curiosity, as I have seen translations of this about in both English and Spanish. Maybe this will resonate with non-Italians. I frankly haven’t the faintest idea.

At this point I feel pretty committed to reading the rest of Zero’s work, but I don’t think each volume merits its own post. I might start to streamline my efforts, but we will have to see.